ACR LTT NMAC WITH SAILPLANE.

Narrative

WE WERE DSNDING FROM 11000 FT TO 9000 FT. CAPT WAS FLYING AND I WAS PERFORMING APCH CHKLIST. CAPT: 'WHAT THE H--- IS THAT BALLOON DOING UP HERE?' I LOOKED UP AND IMMEDIATELY SPOTTED THE OBJECT AT OUR ALT AND 5-10 DEGS L OF OUR FLT PATH. AS THERE WAS NO RELATIVE MOVEMENT IT TOOK 1-2 SECONDS FOR US TO REALIZE THAT THE OBJECT WAS A SAILPLANE FLYING L TO R; PERPENDICULAR TO OUR FLT PATH AND THE GLIDER BEGAN TO GET BIGGER VERY RAPIDLY. I CALLED 'UP; UP; UP!' AND BEGAN TO REACH FOR THE CTLS AS THE CAPT HAD NOT BEGUN EVASIVE ACTION. HE STATED 'I'VE GOT IT' AND ROLLED APPROX 60 DEGS R. AS SOON AS HE COMMENCED THE HARD TURN; I LOST SIGHT OF THE TARGET. THE CAPT WAS ABLE TO MAINTAIN VISUAL WITH THE GLIDER AND RPTED THAT WE PASSED ABOUT 50 FT IMMEDIATELY IN FRONT OF THE GLIDER. HE STATED THAT AS WE PASSED BY; HE COULD CLRLY SEE THE GLIDER PLT; COMPLETE WITH A WHITE BASEBALL CAP; LOOKING AWAY FROM US TOWARDS CENTRAL PHX. IT WAS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT HE DID NOT SEE US UNTIL WE WERE PAST; ALTHOUGH HE PROBABLY HAD A VERY ROUGH ENCOUNTER WITH OUR WAKE. WE RPTED TO ATC THAT WE HAD COME 'VERY CLOSE TO A GLIDER.' THEY RESPONDED THAT THERE WERE NO RADAR RETURNS IN THE VICINITY. 2-3 MINS LATER AN ACR 737 RPTED SEEING THE GLIDER 2000 FT LOWER. FROM HIS FIRST CALL TO PASSING THE GLIDER WAS ABOUT 5-6 SECONDS. OUR ENCOUNTER OCCURRED NEAR THE LAKE PLEASANT ARPT WHERE NUMEROUS GLIDER OPS OCCUR DAILY. ALTHOUGH I BELIEVE WE WERE JUST OUTSIDE CLASS B AND; THEREFORE; THE GLIDER PLT WAS NOT TECHNICALLY ILLEGAL; HE WAS FLYING IN A VERY BUSY AREA. (AN ACR 737 NEARLY HIT A HANG GLIDER IN A WIDELY PUBLICIZED INCIDENT IN THE SAME AREA A MONTH EARLIER.) FURTHERMORE; AN ACR 737 AND OURSELVES BOTH PASSED WITHIN 1/4 MI OF A SAILPLANE ON THE ARLIN 9 ARR 2 WKS EARLIER (THAT GUY DID; HOWEVER; BUST THE CLASS B).